Process of manufacturing draft-yokes.



J. F. OCONNOR.

PROCESS OF MANUFACTURING DRAFT YOKES.

' APPLICATION FILED JULY 25.1914.

1,153.,8 31. Patented Sept. 14, 1915. I

' i INVIENTOR. WITNESSES.- i jiQ wr tnnnnnennnnsrnnnn orttpn.

JOHN F. OCONNOR, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO WILLIAM H. MINER. OF

CHAZY, NEW YORK.

PROCESS CF MANUFACTURING DRAFT-YOKES.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Sept. 11, 1915.

Application filed July 25, 1914. Serial No. 852,997.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOHN F. OCONNOR, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicage, in the county of Cookand State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Processes of Manufacturing Draft-Yokes, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and eXact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification.

This invention relates to improvements in process of manufacturing draft yokes- In railway draft riggings, a member commonly called a yoke is employed to connect the shock absorbing means with the coupler, the yoke ordinarily being in the form of a loop having upper and lower parallelly arranged arms connected at the rear by a curved portion, the front ends of said arms being connected to the draw-bar in any one of several different ways. These yokes are subjected to severe shocks in service and particularly under draft when the yokes are placed under tension and the con1parative value of the different types of yokes is generally determined by tensile tests. In actual practice, it has been found that both rolled steel yokes and cast steel yokes generally fail at the rear end where the curved portion merges into the straight upper and lower arms, that is, at the points of tangency. This is due to the fact that the straps or upper and lower arms are not sufficiently braced or backed by the vertical filler which is also generally formed on the inner side of the curved rear end and the reason for being unable to make the said filler of suflicient strength to properly brace the straps is on account of the necessity of avoiding angles or sudden changes in the thickness of the metal at the points of tangency. For, as is well known, in the cooling of castings, unusual thickness or sudden changes in thickness causes excessive stresses in the metal after it has cooled. The practice has been, therefore, to provide a filler or bracing web of more or less thin material in order to overcome the troubles encountered in casting and cooling.

The object of this invention is to devise a process of manufacturing a cast yoke which will overcome all the objections heretofore found and indicated in the preceding paragraph.

In the drawing forming a part of this specification, I have illustrated one manner of carrying out my improved process and in said drawing, Figure 1 is a side elevation of the yoke as first cast. Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the casting shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is an enlarged vertical sectional view taken substantially onv the line 33 of Fig. 1. Fig. 4: is a section similar to Fig. 3 and showing the yoke after the same has'been annealed and the filler bent and Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the rear end of the yoke showing the same as completed. i

In the drawing, the yoke, as first cast, as shown comprises a strap 10 in the form of a loop having upper arm 11 and lower arm 12 the same being united at the rear by a curved substantially semi-circular portion 18. At their front ends, the yoke arms 11 and 12 are connected together by side plates 1 1-1 1 which are slotted as indicated at 15 to re ceive a coupler connecting key therethrough, the side walls 14f1 1 and the top and bottom straps forming a substantially rectangular hoodin which the rear end of the draw-bar is adapted to be received. Within the rounded rear end 13 the yoke is provided with an integral filler 16 the same being hollow or of box-like form and having upper and lower curved faces 17-17 and outwardly and oppositely bulged sides 18-18, the sides l818 being connected with the curved portion 13 of the yoke by integral narrow sections of metal 19-19. As clearly shown in Figs. 1 and 8, the upper and lower curved faces 1717 of the filler are spaced from the inner sides 20 of the curved end 13 when the yoke is first cast. It will also be noted from an inspection of Fig. 1 that the front bearing edges 21 of the filler are located in a plane in front of the points 2222 where the horizontal arms 11 and 12 are tangential to the curved rear end 13. The side walls 18 are cut away above and below the connecting portions 1.9 as indicated at 23. After the yoke has been cast in the form herein described, it is annealed in the usual or any desired manner and after being annealed is placed under a drop hammer and the side walls 1818 straightened or flattened to the position indicated in Fig. 4 at 118118. During this bending operation, it is a parent that the upper and lower faces I i-17 of the filler will be forced into engagement with the inner sides 20 of the curved porand lower arms 11' and 12 of the yoke so that in the final condition of the yoke, the arms or straps of the yoke are securely braced throughout their entire width.

From the preceding description it will be seen'that' I have devised a simple process of manufacturing a cast yoke having the filler tightly filling the rear curved end of the yoke and with the filler slightly extended beyond the tangential points 22,22 which is an important consideration since it insures the proper bracing or supporting of the arms 11 and 12 when the same are subjected to tensile strains. Also, by my'process I avoid anysudden changes in thickness ofmetal at the rear end of the yoke and particularly at the points of tangency and the arms 11 and 12 of the yoke are braced throughout their entire width. V v j Although I have herein shown and described only one method of carrying out my invention, yet it will be understood that various changes in the steps and combinations of the steps of the process may be made Without departing from the spirit of the invention and all such changes and modifica- Copies' of this patent may be obtained for bending some of the walls of said filler until said upper and lower faces thereof contact with the inner sides of said rounded loop end.

2. The herein described process of manufacturing a yoke for railway draft riggings which consists in first casting a yoke strap having a box-like, hollow filler attached thereto at its rear end on the inner side, the side walls of said filler being bowed and the upper and lower faces thereof spaced from the adjacent'inner faces of the rear end 01 the'yoke, annealing said casting, and then straightening said bowed sides of the filler until the upper and lower faces of the latter engage said inner faces of the rear end of the yoke.

JOHN F. OCONNOR. Witnesses:

CARRIE G. RANZ, ARLINE R. ARNOLD.

five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G. 

